Happily ever after

I've written up a recent trip to Storybook Glen for Nothing To See Here. Situated just outside Aberdeen, it's a fairytale garden, which is a common enough concept worldwide but rare in Scotland (and the rest of the UK). On one level, it's a brilliant day out. Serious good fun, we all loved it. On another it's a shrine to folk art, or naive art or whatever. I never know where the lines are drawn when it comes to all that. Check out the Storybook Glen Flickr set for more details or visit if you can. It's well worth it.

Cumbernauld: Love it or loathe it

Good and bad news for Cumbernauld this week. The bad first - it's up for its third Carbuncle. These are the raspberries given out by Architecture Scotland for the worst buildings, with a special "Plook on a Plinth" category for worst town. The idea is to "provoke debate about the poor quality of development in many of Scotland’s towns and cities" but it still seems a bit mean.

She's crafty

Glasgow Craft Mafia, a collective of groovy crafty types is getting off the ground this week with a launch party at Home in Albion Street, followed by some markets over the next couple of months. Check out the members to see what's in store. It's an ideal place to start your Christmas shopping.

So, what was it like? Well, it was very well made for a start. The batter was beautifully light and crispy and sealed the chocolate so none of it oozed out. Initially, a very tidy snack. The first bite was magical - a lovely mix of savoury and sweet. The crunch of the batter contrasted nicely with the gooey filling. The Mars bar doesn't melt but the caramel and the Milky Way-style fluffy stuff (technical term?) melt together and go all marshmallowy. Overall, it was surprisingly nice but after a couple of bites I'd had enough. I wouldn't eat a normal Mars bar really, so it's no reflection on its deep fried friend.

The wikipedia entry on Deep fried Mars bars is pretty detailed and outlines local variations like the deep fried Creme Egg from Duns (they've taken that too far). It also says, in a very deadpan way "It is known that the deep-fried Mars Bar was preceded by the deep-fried pizza. It was common practice in Angus to deep fry frozen pizza from as early as 1980." - now deep fried pizza really was a real part of growing up. I remember it being a real treat although when I tried one recently I couldn't handle it. Posting the Mars bar photo on Flickr prompted a discussion of the best thing you've ever had deep fried. My friend John (from Aberdeen) grew up on deep fried jam butties. Something I remember fondly is the cheese sandwiches deep fried in pakora batter from (the now defunct) Murphy's Pakora Bar. They were outstanding. Fried ice cream is big in Mexico. Any advances on that?

links for 2007-10-17

Anyone know where the bandshell in the show was? Found it: Corlears Hook Park. The walking tour sounded good... I wish I could go back to New York. Here's the clip of them singing If You're Into It at The Unisphere.

Present & Correct

Here's a lovely thing. An ABC of endangered species in the British Isles arranged in a very beautiful A2 wallchart. This is the handiwork of Present & Correct, a design company from Kentish Town. £1 for every one sold goes to The National Trust, for new hedges and dormice boxes.

Right brain vs left brain

Here's a curious thing. Look at this picture (via Coudal) and see which way the dancer is rotating. Clockwise means you're right brain dominated (feeling, "big picture", imagination), anti-clockwise is left brain (logic, detail, facts). I clearly see the dancer spinning clockwise so I'm more right-brained, which probably figures as I'm left-handed. I'd be very interested to know if I like's readership is particularly right-brained or left-brained. What do you see?

Update [Saturday morning]: It's split about 50:50 between clockwise and anti-clockwise with lots of people seeing her change direction. Even though people have explained how to do that I still can't see her going anything but clockwise. Lots of right-handed see her clockwise although no lefties owned up to seeing her anti-clockwise. ManxStef pointed it out on Boing Boing where there are other explanations, and suggestions that it's a straight optical illusion. Maybe so. I never could get those Magic Eye pictures either.

Anti-tourism

This is a short taster film for a series on anti-tourism by Daniel Kalder. I read, and loved his book The Lost Cosmonaut which is a sort of alternative travel book. It's based on the belief that "As the world has become smaller so its wonders have diminished. There is nothing amazing about the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids of Egypt. They are as banal as the face of a Cornflakes packet". I agree with that. Not that they're not amazing, but they're too familiar to be really remarkable, whereas some places are so mundane people actually stop noticing them to the point that they can come into view again in a surprising way. This is certainly what Nothing To See Here is all about.

Daniel Kalder was born in Fife but lives and works in Russia so most of his exploring is around the spectacular bleakness of the Soviet Union. There are some interesting snippets in the film, like Peter the Great's Kunstkammer which houses his collection of mutants. It would make a great series so here's hoping someone picks it up.

East Kilbride: Town for tomorrow

East Kilbride, Scotland's first new town, is 60 years old this month. To celebrate South Lanarkshire Council are putting 4 films about its development online (follow the SLTV link, then the Highlights tab). The first, Town for Tomorrow is a belter - a promo from 1954 which shows the values that it was built on. It underlines the optimism and innovation that went into it - the Development Corporation were trying to improve the way people lived and came up with a number of sensible, considerate ideas that still seem to be working 60 years on - lots of green space around houses and flats; 4 main housing areas equidistant from the town centre; different types of housing for couple/families/older people; schools and smaller shopping centres within each district. That's just for starters. It often seems like new towns have been written off as failures en masse but there's a lot to celebrate here.

For the last 3 years my daily routine has been going through it on a bus twice a day and as I start a new job this week this is one thing I'll reallly miss. There's something very ambient about the whole set-up that makes floating through it on the top deck a good way to clear the head and start the day - clean lines; lots of light and space; muted colours; roundabouts; a mixture of standard housing stock (the models for houses, flats and cottages are more or less consistent throughout the whole town) broken up by more innovative buildings like the funky modernist churches. It's familiar but different at the same time, and whatever it is that some people find soulless is soulful to me. Happy birthday EK.